TPCC suspends Nagesh after brawl with VHR at all-party meeting

HYDERABAD: The Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) suspended party general secretary Nagesh Mudiraj on Monday. Mudiraj had made news a couple of days ago when he was involved in a brawl with senior Congress leader V Hanumantha Rao in an all-party meeting at Dharna Chowk, Hyderabad. Hanumantha Rao had confronted Nagesh for sitting in a chair reserved for AICC State in-charge RC Khuntia. The two men came to blows and fell on the stage.

The PCC disciplinary action committee inquired into the incident at a meeting held in Gandhi Bhavan. After speaking to both the leaders, the committee’s chairman, M Kodanda Reddy, issued orders suspending Nagesh from the party.

Kodanda Reddy said that the committee had received complaints from Congress party functionaries and seen reports in newspapers regarding Nagesh’s ‘indecent behaviour and ugly brawl’ with former PCC president Hanumantha Rao at a dharna organised to protest against the TRS government in relation to the Intermediate result fiasco.

Kondanda Reddy, in the suspension order, told Nagesh: “As a general secretary in TPCC, you needed to restrain yourself. But you indulged in a serious confrontation with a senior leader, which is totally condemnable considering the dharna was being held on a sensitive issue related to the student community.

The prestige of the party has been damaged due to your salacious attitude. This type of activity definitely warrants the application of disciplinary rules. The party has taken view of your sordid and unruly behaviour towards senior leaders of the party. Thus, the disciplinary action committee has met, discussed and taken the unanimous decision to suspend you.”

Will approach the court, says Nagesh

Hyderabad: TPCC general secretary Nagesh Mudiraj alleged that he has been suspended from the Congress party for no valid reason. He said that he would approach the court against the disciplinary action committee’s decision. Mudirak claimed the Pradesh Congress Committee was acting like an ‘agent of V Hanumantha Rao’ and said the decision to suspend him was taken unilaterally.  Immediately after he was suspended from the party, Nagesh staged a dharna before the Gandhi statue on Gandhi Bhavan premises. He alleged Hanumantha Rao had insulted him in public and before senior leaders of all parties. “The disciplinary action committee did not take any action against him (Rao) for this,” he said.